Springfield City Council heard from the public Monday night about the city’s proposed data center definitions.
Justin Crighton, assistant director of Public Works for the City of Springfield, said current land development code does not define data centers and does not list data center as a use.
The proposed definitions would create three classes for data centers: An accessory data center, one that is less than 1 megawatt, inside another building, not more than 20 percent of its gross floor area and serving only the owner or tenant; a micro data center, not more than 10,000 square feet and less than 5 megawatts; and a large-load data center, 5 megawatts or more or more than 10,000 square feet. Planning and Zoning recommends approval.
Cameron Rose is a partner with Won Communications, a small local internet provider. He’s concerned that the definitions might harm his business.
"The issue that I see is that the way that these definitions are currently written, they would present us from moving our office and prevent us from setting up a fiber hut, which is just a small building that, you know, usually about 8X10' that we use to provide service to other businesses or to residents, depending on where that is," said Rose. "Because the accessory data center definition says that you cannot provide services to anyone other than tenants or to the occupant of the building, that would cause anything that we build to be classified as a data center."
He said what they build is low impact and uses a small amount of power and doesn't use water. He suggested City Council bring listen to the tech sector in Springfield before finalizing the definitions.
Kevin Waterland, owner and general manager of Pitt Technology Group and board member of Springfield Tech Council, told City Council he’s opposed to the proposed definitions.
"It would actually capture our headquarters as a data center," he said. "So, the way that we run our business is we serve our clients through some racks of equipment that are in our building, and by the definition that you've got right now, we'd be classified as a data center. I don't think that's the appropriate definition. I don't think it was intended, obviously, to do that."
He suggested City Council move the proposed definitions back to committee and said, if they’re passed as is, they will require his business to move out of Springfield.
Others spoke in support of the definitions and said they believe data centers would harm the environment and quality of life in the city.
John Bottorff with Clean Earth 4 Kids said he believes the definitions are inadequate to serve as a platform for the coming regulations.
"There's a lot of different granularity in kind of what a data center is and what they're for," he said. "You know, the main thing I think that people get scared about and that we're all concerned about is the amount of power that these things can take and the water utilization, the pollution that can come with them, and that's where those definitions really need to get filtered through."
Springfield Public Works Director Steve Childers said he’d like to have a broader conversation with the Springfield Tech Council and that he wants to get it right.
City Manager David Cameron said he’s comfortable with the definitions before council and that if council approves them, they can be revised later.